Klinsmann: Korea will be ready for Australia
Al Rayyan, Qatar - Jurgen Klinsmann believes South Korea’s penalty shoot-out win over Saudi Arabia will give his side a morale boost capable of overcoming any lingering fatigue ahead of their Asian Cup quarter-final meeting with Australia on Friday.
The Taeguk Warriors will have little more than two full days to recover for the clash with Graham Arnold’s side after needing 120 minutes, plus injury time, and spot-kicks to see off Roberto Mancini’s team at Education City Stadium on Tuesday.
“This win gives the team an enormous amount of energy, it gives the team even more spirit,” said Klinsmann. “This is a group of players I enjoy so much working with because they badly want to do well for their country.
“We wanted to win the game badly before the penalty shootout. Anything can happen in a penalty shoot-out. Now we’re waiting for these 53-and-a-half hours and we will recover, we have a good spirit and we’re looking forward to Australia, which is a good team that just won 4-0.
“We knew this would be a very difficult game against a very good Saudi Arabia team,” said Klinsmann. “We are happy. We should have scored a couple of goals more because we had
This win gives the team an enormous amount of energy, it gives the team even more spirit. This is a group of players I enjoy so much working with JURGEN KLINSMANN
many chances but Saudi Arabia also had more chances, all the way to the penalty shoot-out.
“We prepared for (penalties), we trained for it and Hyeon-woo made two saves which is wonderful. We expected this game tonight, we got this game against a very good team and now we’re looking forward to the quarter-final.”
Mancini was left frustrated by the defeat and apologised for walking down the tunnel before Hwang smashed his match-winning penalty into the top corner of the Saudi goal, but insisted his side’s elimination would not see him walk away from his post.
“I want to say thank you to all my players for what they did,” said the Italian.